2022, Vol.28, No.1

A study of the Exile Narrative of the Movie The Book of Fish

Kim, Sun-Mi | 2022, 28(1) | pp.13~32 | number of Cited : 3

PDF

The Relationship between Reproduction and Reality based on the Layers of Records in An Old Lady—How Can a ‘Lumped’ Old Lady be Reproduced?

Jang Key Young | 2022, 28(1) | pp.33~70 | number of Cited : 2

PDF

This study set out to analyze An Old Lady with a focus on the motif of “records.” This film overcomes the typicality of an old lady. The study examined meanings connoted in this change and the reaction phenomenon according to the change. The film shows a “record” three times including a complaint, report letter, and memoirs with no name and title. These records make an important motif to overcome passive typicality that was repeated in the description of female characters in old age. In An Old Lady, an old lady is reproduced with this motif, becoming a subject “with a name” instead of others “put together.” Interestingly, the character’s “records” as an act she performs make viewers reflect on the characteristics of the film as a medium and also the significance of vicious comments for the film. As a “feature film,” An Old Lady points out that legal and institutional languages can nullify the possibility of existence itself. The victim from the real event that the film is based on and the main character can have their own narratives in the forms of “will” and “memoirs” instead of official records. Their self-speech points to the error of institutional language to measure and question a fact only with objective grammar. The study also categorized and examined vicious comments on the online rating platform for the movie, discussing prominently repeated types, which derived from the mechanism of tautology to reproduce only a known world. Discussing existence in the evaluation area of reproduction is interconnected to the deficiency phenomenon of their reading. Irony is found in their writing as they “rate without watching” while talking about “not watching the movie.” Their rating “exists in a state that cannot exist.” An examination of the implications of An Old Lady in and outside the film helps to read the reason of “deficiency in writing/reading acts” deeply introduced in recent cultural phenomena and also the fact that “reproduction of others” is not a synonym with “otherization.”

<Minari>, Decentralization and Ethical Turn of Vulnerable Subjects

HAN GWI EUN | 2022, 28(1) | pp.71~107 | number of Cited : 1

PDF

<Minari> was released in 2020 amid a pandemic. Although the film is centered on a Korean family who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s, it gained worldwide sympathy at the same time. The purpose of this paper is to interpret the reason in relation to the contemporary situation and discourse. Jacob, the main character of <Minari>, is the subject of the struggle for recognition called the patriarch. He identifies himself with the signifier of ‘successful Koreans in America’ and seeks to make subjectivation by internalizing the Symbolic order of American society. However, the ideology of the ‘American Dream’ hides the US intention to secure cheap labor, so it is not easy to achieve his Symbolic desire. This situation creates a conflict between Jacob and Monica. The more Jacob tries to realize ego-ideal, the more he leads to self-denial, and violence occurs in the process of trying to identify others as well. In contrast, Monica is the subject who perceives her own vulnerability. Monica’s emphasis on ‘together’ is because she knows the fragility of herself and her others and the inevitability of dependence. Soonja is a decentralized subject who is not assimilated to the name of ‘grandmother’ required by the system. Sunja approaches David by ‘address’. Sunja becomes the condition and world for David to move toward his true subjectivization. The ego-ideal that David was given a “useful person” by Jacob, and the fear of the God of the big Other, projected by Monica, begin to dissipate due to Sunja. The fire caused by Sunja and the burnout of the warehouse are a complete failure and hopeless event from the Symbolic, but this failure is an ethical turn in which one realizes vulnerability and dependence. <Minari> contains the process of a achievement subject with Symbolic desires and fantasies realizing their vulnerability and becoming a decentralized subject. The film shows that through this subjectivization, an ethical turn of taking responsibility for others is possible. For this reason, <Minari> is a film that has the values required by the pandemic era, and this paper can be meaningful in that it derives that value.

Nation and Gender in “Colonial Romance”—With a focus on the drama Mr. Sunshine

Koo, Ja-jun | 2022, 28(1) | pp.111~148 | number of Cited : 2

PDF

Aired on tvN in 2018, the drama Mr. Sunshine is set in Hanseong during the Korean Empire in the early 20th century, which period did not receive many highlights in historical dramas. This drama stirred various discussions about its historicity and historical investigation by mixing the landscape of Hanseong in the 1910s and that of Gyeongseong in the 1930s through intentional time and space entanglement. Why does it summon the “modern” custom of the colonial period? How is the background of the drama, Gyeongseong in the 1930s, related to its narrative and romance? This study set out to examine the drama on an extension of “colonial modern” reproduction that was in vogue since the 2000s and investigate the meanings of its character’s nation and gender that received little attention in previous discussions. In this drama, time and space entanglement is not restricted only to materials. It happens partially based on even conventional characters and narrative structures in romance that unfolds in the time and space of colonial Gyeongseong, thus holding importance. The drama critically inherits movies and dramas set in colonial Gyeongseong made since the 2000s. Here, the main characters’ relations with a nation are apparent as they are formed differently according to the characteristics and gender of characters. Unlike the old “modern boys,” Eugene Choi has no conflicts between Japan and Joseon. Instead, he shows off his transnational and military masculinity based on his American nationality and soldier status and keeps protecting the heroine. On the other hand, the heroine Go Ae-shin is set as a confident and independent character but ends up similar to other heroines in colonial romance since the 2000s as she serves as an opportunity for the hero to return to Joseon through romance. This discussion offers an inquiry into the changing patterns of reproducing “modern” during the colonial period and shows how the appearance of new romance reflects the current perceptions of gender and nation as dramas project the desire and logic of “current” times in historical events and characters. There is a special need to focus on the risky companion of fascination with modern and nationalist logic in the reproduction of colonial Gyeongseong in the 1930s since the 2000s. It shows that the complex and sometimes contradictory perceptions of individual and gender and people and state have been expressed in the landscapes of the 1930s. Both the achievements and limitations of Mr. Sunshine are the results of stitching up this issue of risky companion properly through romance.

A study on re-reading of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee’s North Korean movies—Focusing on the dialect and North Korean standard language represented in Salt(1985)

Jeong, Ye-In | 2022, 28(1) | pp.149~184 | number of Cited : 2

PDF

The North Korean film Salt(1985) starred Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee is well known for breaking the taboos of the North Korean film industry in terms of that they used dialects, described rape and childbirth, and exposed women body. These ‘broken taboos’ have mainly been interpreted in respect of the ‘revolutionary mother’ image and sexuality reproduced by Choi Eun-hee. On the other hand, the issue of utilizing dialects in the North Korean film industry, where only Munhwaŏ (North Korean standard language) could appear, has not been closely addressed. This article would like to re-read the implications of movies produced by Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee in the North by apprehending the dialect as a space where various elements are combined in layers and capturing the inside and outside of the dialect use. Kim Jong-il kidnapped Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee to North Korea in the late 1970s and demanded a new type of film that could resonate with the public emerged after the globalization and industrialization of the North Korean film industry. The two filmmakers could have made various attempts in a relatively free environment under the support of Kim Jong-il. Representing the dialect in Salt was also possible in that sense, and Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee used the dialect as a device to sympathize with North Korean audiences by taking advantage of its ‘realness’ in Salt. The dialect symbolizing ‘livelihood of (Joseon) women awakening’ from Choi Eun-hee’s mouth intended to refer to the (Joseon) people, not the two Koreas. However, as the dialect represented the wretched life of the lower class whilst NK standard language as wokeness, the dialect transformed into a device that emphasized class disparity rather than locality or ethnicity. The dialect as a ‘realistic’ element originally intended by Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok interlocked North Korea’s hegemony while being incorporated into the norms of NK standard languages in that respect. In conclusion, the dialect in Salt reveals that the cinematic achievements of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, prominent position in the North Korean film industry, were inseparable from the North Korean regime. Their breaking taboos had a characteristic of being allowed in a tolerance range. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that their works captured the gap taking place in the succession of the regime from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il.

The Morality of Mobility and Urban Imagination—Focusing on The Morality of Urban Mobility(Shane Epting, 2021)

Choe, Yeong-Seok | 2022, 28(1) | pp.187~215 | number of Cited : 0

PDF

KJCKorea
Journal Central

Journal of Popular Narrative 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.85

2022, Vol.28, No.1